


Wish We Could Turn Back Time

by WriterofGotham



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: All aboard the Angst Ambulance, Angst, Dick Grayson messing with time, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No happy endings, Pure angst and sad feels, Sad, Sad Ending, They did nothing to deserve this, Time Travel, all aboard the pain train, sorry in advance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 12:19:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11623398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterofGotham/pseuds/WriterofGotham
Summary: I have to make sure this future never happens. I press the button for time to turn back right as the door starts to open again. Blood and tears are covering my face as I see him checking to make sure we were all dead the last thing I see is him raising his boot over my head. All the good parts of my life flash before my eyes.If it will only work. A redo, just a month. Thirty days, seven hundred and twenty hours, forty three thousand and two hundred minutes.An explosion of pain then darkness.





	1. Chapter 1

I looked out my right eye the left one swollen shut, but that's the least of my injuries I can feel the blood oozing out of my side, the knife still stuck inside me and my hair is stiff from dried blood. I can't name a body part that doesn't have a sharp pain shooting through it. We put up a good fight, but the last thing I remember, we didn't win. It was a last ditch effort anyway. We got caught and had to hide in an abandoned store. We were outnumbered, there was no way could have won. 

I smell the unmistakable scent of blood its metallic and familiar odor assaulting me. It wasn't just from my stab wound. I knew that much, and I knew I wasn't alone. The silence surrounding me seemed to get louder as I became more aware. My eye adjusts to the dim light. We did not win. This was the last stand, our final hope. A strangled cry escapes my lips as I look in horror at the sight a few feet away from me.

I see Damian he's covered in blood and...He isn't breathing. His Robin uniform is tattered and he's really dead. No coming back, dead. Permanently. I look away only to see Tim in a pool of his cold congealed blood, he's dead too. His mask broken into pieces revealing his lifeless blue eyes. He looks so pained even as he lay dead. Jason is beside him, he is just as dead as my other two brothers, Jason's death, at least looked quick a single shot to the heart. Bullet piercing rounds at a short distance, Kevlar barely makes a difference. It looks like he tried to protect Tim, but there wasn't anything he could do. Tim had been shot in an artery he bled out with every beat of his heart. No Lazarus pit or miracle could bring them back now. No one could do it, because we are all gone.

We were the last hope.

We failed, even as I lay here dying, I can't help but feel like I should have done more.

Bruce, Barbara, Cass, Stephanie, Alfred, and even Commissioner Gordon, they had already been killed. One by one violently and painfully all for what? In what cruel world is it that everyone I love is dead and I'm now slowly dying. Richard John Grayson, last of The Flying Graysons' and the last of the adopted Wayne children, now. All the Robin had bonded together fought together, dying well, dead together.

If only I had the device they died for. I was now dying to protect. It couldn't fall into his hands, I wouldn't allow their sacrifices to be in vain.

I searched my pockets as best I could my left arm was dislocated and the other felt bruised. It was painful and I had to stop to take breaks, I started coughing up blood and I couldn't control the tears falling on my face that were blurring my vision. I knew for certain now that I had internal bleeding. I'll be dead soon. My hand strays to a pocket, a small black box with numbers. I found it. I can't believe that it's really in my hands. I still have it, somehow.

I can't think straight, why hadn't it been taken? I hear footsteps coming closer, oh he's coming now to take it. It better work, before Bruce died the last thing he said was, "Protect Gotham, if it falls the other cities will too."

The first city he came to, it hardly seemed like a challenge to kill bats. I wished that somehow things could change. Heroes in the other cities need to be warned. That was impossible.

The time piece can change back time, we all fought to keep it safe and it looked like I am the last person to have it. Should I? Is this the future that's supposed to happen? I hope not as I set the date back a month.

A coughing fit racks me I feel hot blood trickling down my chin and down my neck, I pray I'm in time as my vision fades to black.

It has to be enough or this is permanent, every vigilante operating in Gotham is dead and I can't even imagine what would happen if... he got the time piece.

I have to make sure this future never happens. I press the button for time to turn back right as the door starts to open again. Blood and tears are covering my face as I see him checking to make sure we were all dead the last thing I see is him raising his boot over my head. All the good parts of my life flash before my eyes, my parents teaching me how to fly, my aunts and uncles playing with me, Christmases at Wayne Manor, being a big brother to all the Robins. My first kiss, Barbara smiling while kicking butt in her wheelchair, not a bad life. I never realized how good it was, I should have appreciated it more.

If it will only work. A redo, just a month. Thirty days, seven hundred and twenty hours, forty three thousand and two hundred minutes.

An explosion of pain then darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

I wake with a start. I hear music.

"Wish we could turn back time."

"To the good old days."

I know this day, I woke up to this song when Tim programed my phone to only play that song. I hated it because of an incident involving: a sugar high that involved me singing that song for five hours straight. I'm not proud of that, but, hey I did it for five hours.

The pain that I had been feeling wasn't there. I didn't smell blood anymore. I was in bed, it worked I can change the future. I remember flashes of what happened. Nothing is in the right order and some events are missing completely. The most vivid memory is of my brothers laying dead, in a small store where we made our last stand. All the deaths are in the forefront of my mind. I have a second chance and I'm not wasting it. The timeline is wrong if that was how is was supposed to happen.

I look around my room to make sure this isn't some crazy dream. I sit up in my bed, my posters and room are in order. Clothes are strewn around and nothing is clean

I leap out of bed and run into Damian's room, he's alive. I wake him up with a hug. He growls and flops back in bed. I go to Tim's room next. He's awake working on something, I don't care about his laptop I hug him.

"What's going on, Dick? I'm working on a new case." Tim said irritably.

"I just wanted to say I love you little brother. I'm glad you're okay." I tell him.

"Okay. This new case involves a new player. He seems harmless enough, Cass and I are going to check it out tonight."

A memory assaulted me. I know what happens tonight it isn't good. I have to change it, I don't care what I have to do to change it. It can't go down like that.

Cass dies tonight. She and Tim go out and he barely makes. They killed her first. I shudder at the memory of my sister lying dead in the Batcave. I only remember flashes. Tim's case it's a large group, not the few people he originally thought. Something gave them away and Cass was pushed off the building. Tim was captured and tortured, we found him a few days later. It hadn't been pretty, he kept crying and saying it was his fault that Cass was dead. Saying it should have been him. He had been different after that night. It was hard on all of us, but he saw her fall.

"I'll go with you. Could I see the case files? I've got a bad feeling and think that you could do with more back up." I tried to say nonchalantly.

"What do you know that I don't?" Tim asks me seriously.

I didn't say it nonchalantly enough apparently. I think about lying, but Tim's a better detective then Bruce so that would be bad and he might not let me go with him.

"What would you say if I told I had memories from the future, and tonight leads a path that we all die?" I ask.

"It's not the worst story I've ever heard? What kind of memories, enough to change it?" Tim asked.

"Hopefully, some of the memories are sketchy at best. I do know for sure that tonight that Cass gets knocked out and thrown off the roof top. She's the first to die. You get captured and we find you two days later, it's not good. You never revealed names and we get you clear only because Bruce gets in a fight with the leader. Bruce and the leader of the cult, Mirel fight and Bruce loses. After that it all goes to hell, the cult's taken over Gotham they've been here for months. The communications and roads are all closed no one is able to leave." I sighed.

"That sounds terrible." Tim said as he looked at me. "What happened to the rest of us?"

"I don't remember much else, except dying in an abandoned store we made our last stand in. The timepiece gave me the chance for a redo." I explain. "That's the best I can remember. I don't know where the Timepiece is."

"What can we do to avoid dying terrible deaths?" Tim asked as he researched.

"Find the timepiece and destroy it or make sure the cult is never taken seriously." Dick said.

"Are you sure this happens?" Tim asked.

"I may not have all my memories, but I do know this if you go out tonight with just Cass, it's only the beginning. She dies and you aren't the same." I tell him. I am not wasting my chance to change things.

"Let's crash the time stream then. I mean Bruce hasn't told us a million times of how bad that ends. He has files on how badly it ends." Tim said.

"I don't care. It can't be as terrible as the future I saw. It's worse than when Bruce got lost in time, or when Jason came back from the dead and tried to kill everyone, or when my parents died and I got sent to the orphanage. Yeah, that bad."

"What can I do?" Tim asked.

"Back up all the files and get extra fuel for the generators. Tell Leaguers or the Titans to come to Gotham. We will need help, if we have a prayer of changing the future." I tell him.

"Are you telling the other's? Because I think they need to know. I like knowing that I die in an abandoned store with former Robins." Tim says. It's getting hard to know when he's joking and being serious.

"I don't know. You caught me off guard that's why I told you." I said.

"We need to tell them. I mean we all die and Gotham gets destroyed and literally nothing good ever comes from it," Tim reasoned.

"You do make a good point." I conceded to Tim.

"Might as well get it over with it, I don't think anything surprises bats anymore. I wish things weren't so crazy all the time. Why can't things ever be simple and good?" I whined.

"Right, you would die of boredom if that happened." Tim said as he saved and shut down his laptop.

We walked down to the kitchen I may or may not have given Alfred a tight 'Glad You're Alive and Not Dead' hug. He may or may not have shook his head and just returned it. Alfred is used to anything by now, I don't think anything surprises him anymore.

"Where is Bruce? And everyone else, I need to talk to them we need to plan." I tell him.

"What is it this time?" Alfred said deadpanned.

"Literally everybody dies." I tell them.

"Ah, a normal week then." Alfred replied.

I called in everyone, Bruce, Jason, Stephanie, Damian, Barbara, Cassandra, and the Titan's were on standby. If we didn't call them in a week they promised to storm into Gotham and raze it. Cassie promised that she didn't hear from Tim she would call all the Amazons to help.

I really hoped it didn't have to come to the Amazons invading Gotham to free it from the control of evil cultists.

We all where gathered around in the batcave. When I explained what happened nobody looked surprised. That night we all went out I stayed with Jason, Tim and Cassie partnered up, Damian and Bruce went with each other.

I kept getting flashbacks of memories they assaulted me at the wrong time. Cass and Tim were doing the same thing with all of us shadowing them. A memory from this afternoon came at me.

"Time wants to happen. There's no guarantee that any of this will change the timeline or our deaths." Bruce told them at the meeting.

"It's not like we just going to roll over and die? We are the Batfamily for crying out loud." Steph said grimly.

"I don't have a lot memories, but I'll try to prepare you all for anything." I said.

Gotham had a full moon that didn't provide much light due to cloud cover. A street light gave us enough light to watch it unfold just like I remembered. Even with us all there all we could do was watch.

Watch as Cass was thrown of the building.

Watch as we didn't get there in time to save Tim from being taken.

Helpless, I was doomed to watch it all unfold for a second time. The Wi-Fi and cell signal dropped. Exactly the same.

We are all going to die.

Time wants to happen.


	3. Chapter 3

My heart sank to the bottom of my steel toed combat boots.

I felt sick. I tried to breathe in and out slowly to keep from puking.

Tim was captured, and Cass... oh God, she's dead again. I was supposed to save them. Nothing changed right now Tim's probably being tortured right now. I remembered when Damian and I rescued him he had been so badly hurt and so many needle tracks on his arm where he had been pumped full of sodium pentathlon. He'd been delirious and kept repeating that he'd never tell them anything. Tim looked so broken and shattered that when he finally was back on his feet, that in itself had had been a miracle, he had been a shadow of his former self... and it was happening again.

I didn't even know where he was now they seemed to be everywhere and nowhere. There wouldn't be an easy win and any victory we could have needed to be gained.

I remembered when Stephanie died, she was looking for Tim. I remembered she had been caught unaware for just a second and a cultist had broken her neck and thrown her still warm corpse off Wayne Enterprises. They found out that bats didn't spill secrets, what was the point of capturing them? The memory was still too fresh, I saw it all she fell so quickly I knew she was already dead. I wanted to wake up from the nightmare that seemed to follow me in the daytime.

By some phenomenon, this time Bruce didn't die right then. We retreated, we left my brother to the cultists. Back at the Batcave ideas were tossed around, but they were the same ones that I knew failed. It's coming to feel like it's inescapable I'm going to watch them all die one by one again. I'm not strong enough to lose my family again. I know how it ends.

Unless...

I left the batcave in a hurry. I took a motorcycle and raced to the timepiece inventor, Mahala Jones. I rushed into her house. I may have broken the door down. If it works it won't matter, it just has to work. I didn't care how wrong what I was doing was, I knew it had to be done.

I found her in her lab finishing up the timepiece. I ripped it out of her hands and I set in the date, even as Mahala tried to stop me. She was telling me how I couldn't control time. Couldn't change it, to how I wanted it to go. I didn't care what she was saying.

I have to change time, this couldn't be how it ended.

Not again.

Not ever, again.

She stared at me with horror as the world faded away and blackness took over.

I woke with a start. I heard music. That song again, Twenty One Pilots, I am beginning to hate that song even more. I go back in time, but not to 'the good old days' they keep referencing to.

"Wish we could turn back time."

"To the good old days."

I know this day. I'm reliving it again.

All the deaths are in the forefront of my mind. I have a third chance and I'm not wasting it. The timeline is wrong if that was how is was supposed to happen.

I look around my room to make sure this isn't some crazy dream. I sit up in my bed, my posters and room are in order. Clothes are strewn around and nothing is clean.

I leap out of bed and run into Damian's room, he's alive. I wake him up with a hug. He growls and flops back in bed. I go to Tim's room next. He's awake working on something, I don't care about his laptop I hug him. I can't believe I failed him another time. It can't happen again, I have to be better and stop it from happening.

I leave after hugging both of them Alfred's in the kitchen I hug him and try to come up with a feasible plan. Alfred is used to my hugs so he didn't think anything was up.

I ate a bunch of pancakes and drank so much chocolate milk. I guess my subconscious remembered when Alfred was killed and Damian cooked. I didn't talk when everyone was around the kitchen table, I just watched them. I have to save them. They didn't comment on how quite I was and I was glad I had to save them.

I listen to Damian and Tim harmlessly bickering. Cass is home and she looks content with most the family here. Daddybats as some people call, Bruce even looks happy, he's cracked a grin watching all his kids. I want to freeze this moment and keep things like this forever.

I know in only a few hours it all ends. I have to stop it, my past failures are ringing in my mind. I think about what I could do and all my options, aren't good. I know what happens if I tell them, and if they know nothing about it coming. I'm not a killer or I would kill the cult leader. He kills Bruce soon.

I try have to try something even if it's a terrible idea.

It is a truly terrible idea. Oh, my gosh is it the worst plan I've ever came up with or ever heard.

I suited up and slipped out before anyone else. Bargaining may not work so I left a note on what not to do and the address to Mahala Jones house and if I could only remember why the timepiece was important to the cultists. I told them all how much they meant to me and how desperately I wanted this to work. I didn't mention that we all died. I thought that was a downer and wouldn't help anyone.

God, I hope this works.

I found the leader easily and I breathed out an uneasy breath the same thing that happened to Tim could happen to me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohh, it's just getting good.


	4. Chapter 4

The bat family was gathered around a sheet of paper, in Dick's messy handwriting it outlined what would have happened that night. He was apparently trying to save all of them by sacrificing himself.

"I never thought that Dick would do that. He loves us and all that, but to trade himself for us." Jason whispered almost too shocked to be angry. "He should have told us!" He slammed his fist on a table nearby.

"How did we let this happen under our nose for what had to be months? Mahala Jones, the so call timepiece inventor doesn't seem to have the qualifications or training to make it, something isn't right." Tim said almost to himself as he worked out in his mind the hypothetical equations for time travel with a small device. "Even with the best tech available it would take many people and a few PhDs before that could remotely happen, this isn't exactly comic book science we are talking about."

Bruce looked at all his children, Jason was shocked and angry, Tim was doubtful, Cass was showing the emotions of a statute, and Damian was mad and worried that the note he left was all too real.

"We never operate without knowing more details, Oracle's been briefed and is coming up with nothing. I'm taking the precautions that Dick suggested. Superman and Wonder Woman insisted on coming tonight anyway. I don't think everything is adding up just right."

"I looked up Mahala Jones she is a librarian didn't finish college, no siblings her parents live in Opal City in retirement home. Her financial situation doesn't match the nice home her parents are in and the Jones's were by no means rich something is going on." Barbara said over the comms.

"We have to find Grayson, who knows what is going on with him. If he thought this was dangerous and we all died." Damian said.

"I already checked his trackers are disabled, he must have cut them out so we wouldn't follow him." Tim said as he tried to find the tracker on his bike.

Cassandra looked at all her family she didn't say anything, she looked at their worried faces and saw that they needed to find there oldest brother. "I go to look for him." Cass stated she pulled on her mask.

"I'm in too." Jason said as he pulled on his hood.

"If they are going, I am too. Grayson needs help we can help." Damian grew more worried as the time drew on.

"I'll come too, I've looked all I can. The last place his bike was at was near a warehouse on the waterfront. If your going to look for Dick, I'll pay Jones a visit, see what she knows." Tim said as he finished putting on his gear.

"Keep us posted, Oracle." Bruce said as he pulled on the cowl.

"I will. Be careful out there, we don't know what we are going up against." Oracle replied.

Soon after it was decided that Tim would pay Mahala Jones a visit, and everyone else would look for the wayward Nightwing, Alfred was left alone in the cave to think. He had been silent all while Dick's letter was read and plans were thrown back and forth.

He carefully picked up the paper that Dick wrote. Paranoia was the Batman's prerogative, but Alfred had his own brand of paranoia that had kept him alive for countless years.

Tim slipped silently into the librarian's home, it was nice enough, but he knew looking through her closet she couldn't afford some of the clothes hanging in it: a Gucci jacket, a pair of Christian Louboutin heels, and a Burberry shirt, something had happened to make her have a windfall of money. Oracle had seen her finances and she had no debt at all, and no credit cards. Very few people lived like she did without a "side business." Who knew what she could be into? This was Gotham.

Red Robin found Mahala in skimpy shorts and undershirt watching old reruns of The Office, she was sitting with a cat on her lap and was eating ice cream out of the carton, and scrolling down on her phone. Nothing about her screamed dangerous at all, she looked lonely and like a young cat lady. Tim still approached with extreme carefulness. He was all most on leaning over her when she looked up.

The strawberry creme cheese ice cream carton fell to the floor as she jumped up and screamed.

Red Robin pulled his hand across her mouth, even though no one in the neighborhood would call the police. "Stop screaming, and I'll take my hand away."

She nodded and he pulled his hand off of her mouth, "I guess you caught me. They promised you wouldn't find me." She was distraught and started to cry. "I didn't realize... what I was doing... or I wouldn't have done it... the money was so good... It was supposed to be an acting job. I didn't realize that the... horror movie and... helpless victim was a sham... it was the most money I'd ever seen." She choked out between wailing sobs.

Red Robin was holding her trembling shoulders as she said the last and most important thing, "I didn't know I was part of a trap to kill you all."

Red Robin left as soon as she said that and Mahala was left alone with her cat that was eating the spilled ice cream.

***************************  
NIghtwing was alone on the rooftop, he was surprised to see the cult leader was there.

"Ah, Nightwing so predictable threaten your little family and you appear." He laughed and suddenly Nightwing had a terrible feeling well up inside him... this wasn't right at all.

"What do you want?" Nightwing asked angry.

"You really don't know? You are so pathetic you don't remember saving that stupid girl a day ago, she invited you in and you came into her house. I came and took you showing you a representation of something happening to your family of bats many times and you believed it. You should have seen yourself crying like a imp. You are pathetic and so easy to manipulate do even realize how easy it was to get you to come here? It took some psychotic drugs and a few videos of actors dressed to look like your stupid family."

"No! I saw them all dead you did it!" Nightwing screamed at him.

"You don't believe me how cute, it was rather easy I found it amusing. I want to kill you all so I gathered you here, which will lead all your little friends here to die. Over elaborate, but overall worth it to see how truly stupid, and miserably inadequate you all are. I will make myself famous by killing you all." He cackled, "As he held out a syringe full of a golden liquid as he leapt forward to Nightwing.

*****************************

Batman greeted Wonder Woman and Superman grimly when they arrived at the coordinates that he had sent them. The comms crackled to life right as they were over the ledge to climb on the roof to where Nightwing was yelling at a man.

"It is a trap! Repeat, this is a trap!" Tim's frantically stated over the comms trying to get anyone to hear him.

The nameless villain laughed even harder when he saw there surprised faces fly and walk on to the roof. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman looked on in shock and horror at the scene before them. Stephanie had been briefed and she looked at Cassandra's emotionless face, turn angry. Jason's body language projected anger and confusion as he he looked at them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I switched to no one's perspective because it just made more sense this way.


	5. Chapter 5

Tim raced through the dingy streets hoping they heard his message. He had figured out what and the why Dick was so upset, Alfred had cleared up the rest of the confusion. The elderly butler had only been able to find reach him. Barbara was still trying anyone, but so far he was the only one who had answered. He didn't know why it was so overly elaborate.

Alfred ran the paper an analysis of the page to find that it was Dick's handwriting, but the oils on Dick's hands that were transferred on to the paper provided more important information about what was going on with him. A strange modified drug had been identified, Alfred realized that Dick had been exposed to a highly psychotic drug that would cause hallucinations and disorientation. It was hard to believe that Dick would think something of that magnitude would happen to his family, but he undoubtedly did believe that it was true.

Tim's cape whipped around him as he raced closer where his family was. The lights flashed by as he wished that he could be there in time. The large old brick building loomed as he stopped the motorcycle, he kicked the kickstand into place and ran to up the building. He wasn't expecting the scene before him. Nightwing was laying prone on the roof and Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and all his siblings were engaged in fighting with the hired assassins. He was surprised to find that the assassins where holding there own as the still nameless villain laughed as he watched.

Tim jumped into the fray gunning for the villain, he fought through the slew of villains. He saw that Jason was fighting to win, but he hadn't killed anyone yet. Cass was fighting two at a time and winning, but she was slower than usual, that wasn't good at all. Damian was smiling as he fought with them. Bruce just looked grim as he fought to get closer to the bad guy. Superman and Wonder Woman were fighting along side them, but holding back so as not to kill. It seemed for every one that was brought down another was in his place.

Tim decided to try and get closer to Nightwing, he wasn't moving and it didn't look good. Bruce was almost at the villain when he noticed that under his black leather jacket there were syringes filled with something golden. Whatever was in then couldn't be good. He approached him with trepidation as he lunged for him, the man moved out of the way just in time. Bruce adjusted and tried to get him again, they danced precariously on the ledge of the building. They both were careful as they tried to get the other, it was almost like a cat playing cat and mouse. Except neither was sure who was the cat as they both were going back and forth. The sounds of fists meeting Kevlar and other fighting sounds seemed to grow louder in everyone's ear.

Neither of each of the groups thought they were going to lose, they all turned to fighting without any abandon. Surprise lit on the villain's face when he turn suddenly and saw that his assassins, were losing. He had thought that he could win easily enough, he had hired the right people and they came with guarantees for him to get rid of all the bats. It wasn't right, his overly complicated plan should have worked. He didn't plan on Superman and Wonder Woman coming, but still, he had planned for this day for years only for it to be ripped away by them. He knew he wasn't like the Joker or any of the other crazies. He had planned for everything, but the facts that were staring him in the face. 1. Batman and his children have been around for years they don't kill easy. 2. Bats may have a no meta-rule, but Batman doesn't like losing his kids. 3. Nobody has ever defeated all the bats.

He was so... screwed.

Bruce took advantage of his momentary lapse of attention and leapt on him he restrained him as the man bit and scratched at him. Bruce held him up as the man struggled fruitlessly, "Hey, this is your employer back down or I through him off the roof." Bruce yelled above the noise.

The assassins looked up in surprise as the realized it was over for them. The ones that were still fighting gave up and started an exodus across the bordering rooftops.

Bruce was left with the man and over a dozen unconscious assassins littered around the roof top. He noticed that both Damian and Tim were checking Dick's vital signs.

"What did you do to him?" Damian demanded.

"I injected this into him, it's some of Scarecrows fear toxin and I mixed it with with hemlock roots it's poisonous. I mixed it with the fear toxin to speed up the process."

The white slits in Tim's mask went wide at the mentioning of hemlock. He started looking through all of his utility belts until he found what he was looking for, a bottle of Deathwish coffee extract. He had made it to drink to keep up on stake outs, it was in a small bottle that contained more caffeine than a single cup of coffee that most people drank.

"Here, Damian, help get him up. He has to drink this coffee." Damian looked at him and it seemed to click in his mind. They made him drink the coffe and administered the fear toxin antidote.

"What the... what is that?" Jason asked in a disbelieving voice.

"Tt, the caffeine is the cure to hemlock poisoning." Damian replied, "Only Red Robin would carry around concentrated caffeine."

The villain started to babble, "You see the hemlock paralyzes the victim until the lungs relax and they can't breath anymore the fear toxin speeds it up because of the rush that the adrenaline provides. It was supposed to be foolproof It would have killed all of you, the ninjas were a distraction and they were going to help me inject you all with it. I'm, I'm not crazy. I'm no Joker or Two Face I just wanted to prove to all of Gotham I could take you all down."

"Who even are you?" Red Robin asked, as he got the last of the coffee down Nightwing.

"Nobody knows who I am. I taught high school chemistry for twenty freaking years and my students did better than me. Nicholas Walsh, that's my name. Nobody knows me. I'm forty three years old and my only friend is a cat I rescued from a shelter and my mom. I never got married and I got sick of seeing everyone else have a better life than me. I hated going to work. I finally discovered a new medicine, you know what it was called? A date rape drug. I was laughed out of a meeting and I lost my one shot at fame and fortune. The drug distorted whatever was going on making it seem real and worse than what was happening." He laughed at himself as he looked at all the heroes.

"I approached all your rogues and they gave me enough money for everything I needed to get rid of you all. They approved of my ridiculous plan. I had money, time, and all the ninjas I needed to do my bidding. For two months it was worth it. I always like the librarian, she was too young for me, but I used her as bait to get Nightwing. I paid her most of the money I got hoping she would like me, her parents needed better care and she was grateful. She said I was like her dad." He started to laugh historically, "I can never win."

"Yeah, their is so much better things to do with your miserable life. You could have tried online dating, joining a few clubs, and not being a creepy loner? That would have solved so many problems you have right now." Red Hood stated.

"Are you all immortal?" Nicholas asked, "Is that how you all have lived so long?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Damian said angrily, "You are one of the most painfully pathetic want to be villains I have ever seen. You didn't have friends so you tried to become a villain. I think you won't find prison to your liking especially when you failed in your objective. People who gave you money won't forget."

Nicholas shrunk into himself at the relation that he failed in more ways than one. He wasn't crazy, but he wished he was. Arkham was better than Blackgate.

Nightwing started to wake up, with Tim and Damian staring at him he jumped a little remembering what had happened before he blacked out from the fear toxin.

"You are okay. We are all safe, we have driven the cheap intimation of assassins away. They could barely fight, and we are all unharmed," Damian told Dick.

"Alfred figured it all out form you note and then stupid here confessed to it all. Way over planned and not smart at all." Tim said.

Superman and Wonder Woman saw that everything was in hand so they said a quick farewell and left to go back to their cities. They both seemed shocked that Batman had called them over such a little pathetic man, who caused such havoc in their family.

Red Hood and Robin dropped the man off at the GCPD with a list of what he had done and the address of Mahala Jones as an accessory. They watched as the police book them, it wasn't as satisfying as they felt it should be for them. They went home to find that everyone was exhausted and in more comfortable clothes. Dick had received a slight concussion from falling on the hard roof everyone else had a few bruises. They were gathered in one of the living rooms in the manor, because they saw that everyone needed to be together.

"Next time I think that everyone is going to die I'll tell everyone so we can do blood work first." Dick said unhappily.

"That is a great idea. That dude was messed up." Jason replied as he just wanted to sleep, but between everything that had happened that night and the fact that his siblings wouldn't stop talking was messing with him. Tim was asleep he could sleep through anything as long as his body didn't sense danger. Damian was beside Dick. Bruce was watching them from his seat as even his eyelids got heavier. Jason got up and decided to leave for his apartment, he didn't feel like spending the night at the manor.

Dick hugged him way too tight and told him to be careful and begged him to just stay the night. Jason shook his head and headed out on his motorcycle.

"I have something I have to do. I'll be careful." Jason promised as he gave a little smirk.

They talked for hours when it was finally safe for Dick to go to sleep without any danger,( because of his concussion and being poisoned) they fell asleep on the sofas they were laying on.

That morning the news was playing on a loop that a would be villains lair was preserved for evidence, but that the fear gas concoction he had made was missing and all of the research on how it worked and the demented recipe for it.

"I take it that Master Jason had a productive night after he left." Alfred stated the first time it played.

"I was going to do it today. I didn't want to leave yesterday," Tim sighed, as he inhaled his coffee before taking a sip of the scalding liquid. Dick smiled at his youner brother and his coffee habit.

"Todd, robbed me of my final justice on that imbecile. No one will ever recognize his work and the villain community will think of him as nothing, but a complete failure.," Damian said forcefully.

"I am glad you guys are safe. That was the worst that could ever happen, and I was so afraid I couldn't stop it. I never want to time travel even if its fake like that again. I love all of you." Dick said as he looked at them.

Bruce reached down and hugged his eldest son.


	6. Chapter 6

******The Real Unhappy ending. Stop reading if you want a happy/fluffy ending.*********

"How is he?" Diana asked J'onn, as they walked together across the Watchtower. They both avoided the route that showcased the new memorials that had been put up for the Batfamily. They decided to put all of the memorials in the Watchtower, instead of Tim and Damian's in the Titan's Tower.

"I fear he has created a dream world that it was all just a fantasy. He hasn't even tried to deal with all of his families death. We have him at the here, but it seems that we aren't suited for long-term care. We are.." J'onn paused as he saw Diana's faces fall when she understood where he meant.

"Not Arkham, he's spent most of his life putting criminals there. The cult leader tore it down! We can't do that to him." She implored.

"It is being moved elsewhere. Clark has voiced his opinions too, no one is happy about it," J'onn tried to reassure her. "We all lost friends."

They arrived at the room in the med bay where Dick was at. He was in plain hospital clothes and was talking to thin air, he was mostly healed from his injuries. "I am glad you guys are safe. That was the worst that could ever happen, and I was so afraid I couldn't stop it. I never want to time travel, even if its fake like that again. I love all of you."

They stared with pity as he Nightwing smiled at what had to be a family that had died leaving him alone in the world again.

"This is worse than I thought."

"You see that we can not care for him the way he needs it, Even if Alfred Pennyworth still lived he wouldn't been able to care for him either." J'onn stated.

"I wish we could have known and been there to stop it," Diana said helplessly she still felt guilty from receiving the news too late. She and Clark went to Gotham in time to save Dick in a tiny store where he was surrounded by the dead bodies of his brothers. He blacked out shortly before they came, it would have almost been better if he had passed away silently instead of being a shell of his former brilliant self. In a very real way, Richard Grayson and Nightwing died in in that last-ditch effort with his brothers. Fighting as they always did, together.

"Perhaps it is better that he came up with a world that we did." J'onn mused.

They watched as Dick grabbed the air to wrap it in his arms and say, "I know you love me too, B."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I really tried to make this happy, but in so many ways I got stuck or it didn't make any sense. I got the inspiration for this and I wrote it on my phone at a craft show. It was hard to keep a straight face and be nice to people when all I wanted to do was write this. It turned out alright. I swear I'm not one of those fanfic writes who gains their life energy from making others suffer. 
> 
> I think this will be my only unhappy ending I write.


End file.
